On the Origin of the Wandering Leukocytes in the Oral Cavity. The 10 th Report of Histochemical Study of Peroxidase

Abstract

The predominating cells composing salivary corpuscles are neutrophil leukocytes. This study was undertaken in order to ascertain the origin of these salivary corpuscles both in man and animal. The material was derived from 347 persons including several edentulous patients, and several rabbits and guinea pigs. Saliva smears and frozen sections of the oral mucosa were stained with Wright's stain or with the recently devised NA.S-benzidine peroxidase..stain.
This work experimentally confirmed that 1) adrenalin applied to the mucosa does not exert a specific influence upon the appearance of the salivary corpuscles, 2) a slight degree of passive movement of thesalivary corpuscles may occur in the oral cavity, 3) leukocytes may still remain on the mucosa after cleansing and gargling although in small numbers. The vacuoles of salivary corpuscles appear first in the endoplasmatic zone and subsequently within the nucleus and the ectoplasmatic zone. Frozen tissue sections and numerous saliva smears stained with the peroxidase stain, clearly indicated that the salivary corpuscles can be derived from almost all regions of the oral mucosa, however, the greatest sites of origin of the salivary corpuscles are the palatine tonsils (especially the upper pole) and the gingiva, in otherwords, the tonsillar crypt as the lining mucosa and the gingival sulcus or pocket as the masticatory mucosa. Pseudoeosinophils corresponding to the human neutrophils were also demonstrated from the gingival margin both in rabbit and guinea pig. Although this work is by no means final, and further careful studies are desirable, it is my conclu-sion that the following conditions are probably the most significant for the development of salivary corpuscles: